The surprising job prospect that made Ballarat irresistible

"I expect it to be a city that is able to maintain its community feel whilst also managing the population growth that it will experience," he said.

"There's a lot of infrastructure that will occur."

As Mr Croucher looks to the next decade in Ballarat, he said he hopes we will continue to maintain a welcoming community.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Mr Croucher moved to Australia after meeting the woman who would later become his wife.

She had six months left on her visa and he said "we had to work out relatively quickly whether it was worth pursuing".

"That was at the start of 2015 and we moved later that year.

"Thankfully it worked out well and we're really lucky to call Ballarat home."

In the UK, Mr Croucher worked most in recruiting.

He also founded and ran a charity called Education towards a Future, which provided university scholarships for young men and women in Nairobi.

"They can then use an education to benefit their local community," he said.

"Providing education empowers them to make a difference."

Mr Croucher's first job in Ballarat was to manage the Growing Regional Opportunities for Work program run by Highlands LLEN.

"The program was all about creating inclusive employment opportunities for disadvantaged job seekers," he said.

"This was really a combination of my recruitment background and my philanthropic itch."

The program was funded by Regional Development Victoria, which allowed Mr Croucher to learn how the agency worked.

He then went on to work for RDV and has been for the last three years, currently as the Grampians manager.

Alongside his job, Mr Croucher has previously been a part of the Commerce Ballarat board and is currently a Cafs board member and an ambassador for the Ballarat Foundation.

In 2021 he participated in the foundation's annual gala fundraising event Dancing With Our Stars.

Mr Croucher said these opportunities were a great way to get to know the different aspects of Ballarat.

"I think that when you do any volunteer work, there's a lot you can give," he said.

"But you also have to recognize what you can get from it as well, and I don't think there's any shame in understanding that there are some things to gain."

He said he was able to get a better understanding of business and social issues in the city and share his different perspectives.

"That's exactly what it's all about, there's no one person making the decision, it is a collective."

Mr Croucher's wife grew up in Ballarat, but the pair originally had the idea to settle in Melbourne.

"But then the longer we were in Ballarat, we just found ourselves going, 'why would we look to Melbourne?'," he said.

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"We recognised the opportunity to settle down here and from my perspective it gave me career options I didn't initially expect.

"We're very lucky to call Ballarat our home and we don't have any intention in leaving."